1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of an electrical connector, and in particular to an electrical connector adaptable to different formats of flash memory card.
2. The Related Art
Flash memory cards are generally used in the field of information appliance by virtue of the convenience of data storage and transmission. The characteristics of plug-and-play and carry easily make silicon disks become popular data storage media in the market. Flash memory cards have been used in multiple consumer products such as a personal digital assistance (PDA), a digital still camera, a multi-media player (MP3 player) etc.
Nowadays, flash memory cards have several prevailing specifications in the market. Related products include at least: CF cards (Compact-Flash cards), SM cards (Smart Media cards), MMC cards (Multi-Media Cards), MS cards (Memory Stick cards), SD cards(Secure Digital cards) and xD Picture cards (eXtreme Digital Picture cards) etc. Aforementioned types of flash memory cards are mostly incompatible mutually. The different specifications of flash memory cards result the inconvenience of the consumers. The consumers have to take additional efforts for reading and writing the data stored in flash memory cards of different specifications, for example, purchasing and installing several card readers.
In order to solve above problems, multi-card readers can be used to read and write flash memory cards with different specifications, however, conventional multi-card readers are equipped with a plurality of connecters to receive each flash memory cards of different specifications, this causes complexity of assembly and higher cost of products. Some multi-card readers are equipped with multi-card connector to receive at least two types of flash memory cards, but the complex wiring and the dense terminals of the connector increase the difficulties and the costs of the manufacture.
It is therefore a primary objective of the present invention to provide an electrical connector which adaptable to flash memory cards of different specifications. More specifically, an electrical connector is equipped with a circuit board for leading the conductive paths of terminals to the predetermined locations.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector which adaptable to several types of flash memory cards, the solder legs of the connector are disposed at the lateral of the connector. The easy assembly and low cost of manufacture can be achieved by setting the solder legs at the lateral of the connector.
To achieve the above objects, in accordance with the present invention, there is provided an electrical connector comprising a housing suitable for receiving several types of flash memory cards, a circuit board for leading the conductive paths of terminals to the predetermined locations, a plurality of spring arms for contacting with the respectively metal terminals of flash memory cards, and a plurality of solder legs disposed at the lateral of the connector.
It is an advantage of the present invention that the circuit board for leading the conductive paths of terminals to the predetermined locations minimizing the complexity of designing of the connector housing and contact terminals, and improving the precision of alignment in the combination of housing, circuit board, spring arms and solder legs.
It is a further advantage of the present invention that the cost and difficulty of the rework or inspection of the connector can be minimized by disposing the soldering legs of the connector at the lateral of the connector.